If you’ve got a serious case of wanderlust or luxury travel makes your heart skip a beat, you may already be familiar with glamping. If you haven’t yet heard of glamping, it’s probably time you get the scoop.

What is Glamping?

Glamping is one of those trendy, made up words that travel marketing pros gobble up. It’s one of those words that will make it on those end-of-year lists (“new words we heard this year” or “overused buzz words of the year”), if it hasn’t already.

Glamping is the marriage of glamour and camping. If you’ve never heard the term before, did your eyebrow just lift a bit when you read that? 🙂

Glamping is considered fancy schmancy, glamorous camping. You could go glamping by booking a “glamping” getaway via a travel company or resort, where all the “work” is done for you–no tent to set up, no heavy packs to carry, no meal preparation to think about. You arrive, and voila! everything is already set up for you. Perhaps the glamping experience is set to a background of luxury, turquoise waters, or some other luxurious travel destination. Perhaps it involves a guide, who also prepares four course meals for camping clientele.

Glamping could also be more DIY, such as camping in a luxury RV or a motorhome decked out with all the latest creature comforts of home, leaving little reason to ever want to leave your RV–for example, with cable TV, wireless, luxury washer/dryers, endless hot water heaters, and posh bedding, an outdoor entertainment center (think 50″ television and state of the art sound system) and gourmet outdoor kitchen. You might boondock on public land with a pristine view of the Tetons, or stay at a luxury RV Resort dedicated to serving campers seeking a high-end camping experience.

Glamping could also be a DIY tent camping trip experience, involving wine, gourmet meals, meats or seafood for the grill, candles, and music that fits the mood, and maybe designer tents, packs, and camping accessories.

The Modern Spin on Camping

Glamping may just be the modern spin on traditional camping, affording people with means and opportunity to experience “real” camping and connect with nature. Glamping may also be especially attractive for urban and suburban dwellers who are accustomed to living luxury lifestyles compared to most standards, and who long to step out of their comfort zone, but don’t want to step out too far.

However you spin glamping, however, camping remains an integral part of the experience. It may not be your kind of camping or your favorite kind of camping, but whatever gets people out to connect with nature has to be a good thing.

Personally, I love my RV camping experience. In my mind, it is glamping compared to some of the rugged backcountry camping I’ve done in the past. I’m more than thrilled with the experience, whatever it happens to be called this year in the travel industry.

In anticipation of our next Wanderschool adventure, the kids and I spent the morning making Citronella Beeswax Candles. If you have any camping or outdoor picnics planned where mosquitos or insects prevail and you want to create a bug free zone, citronella candlemaking is a fun activity to get your kids psyched for the coming adventure.

Plus, when you make your own candles, just like making your own food, you know what goes into the mix. In the case of candles, you’ll know what you’re breathing–and hopefully, have peace of mind knowing that you’re burning/inhaling non-toxic fumes. Unlike some wax used for candle making, it is said that beeswax candles actually draw or remove toxins out of the air. Now, that’s a nice bonus, don’t you think?

Materials needed:

*Mason jars or empty cans;
*A double boiler (some people use an old, big can and put it into a larger pot) or a wax melter pot/pourer (I used a Presto Pot);
*Wax (I used beeswax, but this can be pricey. Soy is an eco-friendly, usually lower cost alternative. You can also melt down/reuse old candles);
*Coconut oil to add to the beeswax, if you are not making pure beeswax candles;
*Wick (coated wicks with tabs which can be secured to the bottom of your jar with a hot glue gun are an option);
*Citronella essential oil and any others you wish to use, such as eucalyptus or lemongrass;
*Sticks or pencils to hold wick centered, as needed;
*A bit of patience and humor (which comes in handy when your kids can’t resist putting their fingers into the cooling wax and destroy your pretty, poured creations)!

We found Vermont beeswax chunks at a co-op store in the bulk section. The beeswax wasn’t in its purest form, a.k.a. not make-up grade, (the result being the candles are not as light as other beeswax candles when cooled), but I scored a lot of it at a decent price making it perfect for lovely, eco-friendly beeswax candles.

How to Make the Candles:

Candlemaking can be super messy, with or without kids involved. We covered our workspace with newspaper first. We then melted the beeswax chunks in our Presto Wax Melter. If you’re using beeswax, note that it melts from solid to liquid quickly.

Our wick was not pre-dipped, so we sized and cut pieces of wick and dipped them in wax before affixing in our mason jars. After attaching the wick to the bottom of the jar (some opt for a glue gun and metal wick tab holders) and the other end to a wooden stick, we added several drops of citronella, eucalyptus and lemongrass to the liquid wax. The kids each added drops (quite enthusiastically, of course), and I can’t even guess how many drops landed in the wax. My fingers are crossed that at least enough drops of the essential oils landed in the liquid wax to keep our camping adventures bug free.

Next, I poured the liquid beeswax into the designated mason jars.

And, just like that….Voila!…we created several Citronella Beeswax candles for our next Wanderschool adventure!